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Boulder parents upset at plans to move special-needs program to new Erie school

BVSD to shift program from Mesa Elementary to new Erie K-8

By Amy Bounds

Staff Writer

Posted:
10/20/2016 03:38:02 PM MDT

Updated:
10/20/2016 03:38:26 PM MDT

Alison Rothman hired a special education advocate to help her get her son moved in March to south Boulder's Mesa Elementary, one of four Boulder Valley elementary schools with a program for students with affective needs.

At his neighborhood school, she said, she was getting daily calls about her now second-grade son's behavior, and he often was being physically restrained.

"It was really bad," she said.

At Mesa, she said, "his behaviors are still there, but they know how to work with him. He's a completely different child. He's thriving. When you finally get them in a place where they feel like they can be themselves and are loved anyway, there aren't the words for how that feels."

That's why, she said, she's so upset by a district plan to move Mesa's Intensive Learning Center for Students with Affective Needs, or ICAN, program in the fall to the new pre-K-8 school that's under construction in Erie.

Mesa's program enrolls six students, two of whom are in fifth grade and will move to middle school at the end of the year. Parents of the other four received letters from the district last week telling them about the planned move.

"These kids are the last kids who transition well," Rothman said. "They need the stability and consistency."

Current elementary ICAN programs are located at Mesa, north Boulder's Crest View Elementary, Broomfield's Birch Elementary, and Nederland Elementary, though Nederland's is a hybrid and serves students with a variety of needs.

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The program — catering to students with social, emotional and behavioral barriers to educational success — also is offered in some Boulder Valley middle and high schools.

The district's rationale, according to information provided to school board members, is a K-8 school will reduce the number of transitions for students. The change also would provide a closer ICAN program for Erie and Lafayette students who otherwise would need to travel to Boulder, officials said.

The ICAN program at Lafayette's Angevine Middle School also will be moved to the new Erie school, creating a feeder system. After eighth grade, the students would go to the ICAN program at Lafayette's Centaurus High, which is the feeder school for the Erie K-8.

'How do I explain to him?'

District officials said Michelle Brenner, the district's elementary special education director, is offering to meet with parents individually to talk about a transition plan and which ICAN school would be best for their family.

Transition activities generally include acquainting each student with the receiving campus staff, a school visit and a parent information meeting.

In a written statement, district officials said their "best hopes" for moving students to Erie include minimizing future transitions with a K-8 program.

Officials also noted the new Erie principal, Brent Caldwell, is "well versed in leading intensive special education programs," and that the school's design and teacher training is based around "inclusive supports for all students."

But Rothman, who lives in Boulder, said she doesn't want to move her son at all, especially to a larger, K-8 school that's a 45-minute bus ride away.

Mesa, she said, is small and calm, with a supportive principal and teachers.

"It's such an amazing, welcoming environment at Mesa," she said. "He has no idea he's in a special program. He just knows he gets breaks if he needs them. He's going to lose his friends, his community, the staff. How do I explain to him that all his friends get to keep going there, except him?"

'Hoping they reconsider'

Another Mesa parent, Gina Theriault-Lesch, said she and her husband initially fought to keep their son at his neighborhood school, but decided he wasn't wanted there about halfway through second grade.

Now in fourth grade, he needed help managing his behavior because of his sensory processing disorder and ADHD, with transitions proving especially difficult, she said.

"It was really hard and difficult to switch, but there was so much love at Mesa," she said. "It's been such a safe, wonderful place."

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